New CBS Radio Station Devoted to Veterans and Families

CBS RADIO LAUNCHES FIRST-EVER COMPREHENSIVE, MULTI-MEDIA RESOURCE EXCLUSIVELY FOR MILITARY VETERANS

Connecting Vets Every Day,” all of whom are veterans themselves or the spouse or child of a veteran. While most content will air across all three platforms – online, on demand and on-air – some of the programming will be tailored to fit an individual platform according to how audiences consume that content.

Covering a Range of Relevant Topics Online, On-Demand and On-Air, the Platform Gives Vets Easy and Immediate Access to Services, Solutions and Each Other

NEW YORK, NY, June 5, 2017 – Today, CBS RADIO launched the new “CBS RADIO Presents ConnectingVets.com…Connecting Vets Every Day,” a national, multi-media resource linking military veterans and their families to relevant information, resources, solutions and, most importantly, each other.

The content will be produced and presented by fellow vets who understand the complexity and stages of transitioning from the military ranks back into civilian life. It will cover such important topics as health and fitness, employment and entrepreneurialism, education, finance, and issues particularly impacting female veterans and veterans’ families. Programming is easily accessible online at connectingvets.com and Radio.com, with audio on-demand available at connectingvets.com/podcasts, and programming on-air in Washington, D.C. on local station WJFK 1580(AM). Equally passionate about helping veterans, our sponsorship partners, including Freedom Mortgage and Harley-Davidson Motor Company, will be integrated seamlessly in and around content in non-traditional ways to ensure a user-friendly experience.

With a passion and a dedication to serving our nation’s veterans, the platform is designed to help this very important and growing group cut through the clutter and confusion of what’s available to them to ensure easy access to the benefits and resources they have so rightly earned.

“This new resource is a testament and a dedication to the selfless acts of U.S. veterans and all they do to ensure our freedoms and our very way of life,” said Steve Swenson, Senior Vice President & Market Manager, CBS RADIO Washington, D.C. “We have created a streamlined, solutions-based product that will provide our vets with immediate and easy access to all of their available resources, and to their fellow veterans. We’re confident that together with our partners this dedicated resource will become a go-to source for our nation’s heroes and those around them.”

Included within each morning and afternoon news briefing will be short-form features covering the following areas:

Book Shelf – authors reading excerpts of military or veteran-focused literature
Global Security Watch – updates on current conflict flashpoints and U. S. military involvement
Going Back – following veterans visiting sites of their long-ago battlefields or bases where they were once stationed
Military Life Hacks – veterans share how military skills have made life easier out of uniform
Podcast Roulette – best of podcasts by veterans and conversations with podcast creators
Still Serving – stories about the varied ways veterans contribute to their communities
Stolen Valor – following stories of people attempting to profit by pretending to have served, or by falsely claiming military heroism
The Troubleshooter – finding solutions to problems vets tell us they encounter
VetSports – veterans involved in athletics, including Wounded Warrior competitions
What Goes Around – military history quiz, plus conversations with military historians
Who Knew? – profiling Americans you may not have known served their nation in uniform
read more here

Senior Disabled Veterans No Longer Threatened with Comp Cuts

VA backs off budget proposal to cut benefits for disabled, unemployable vets
STARS AND STRIPES
By NIKKI WENTLING
Published: June 14, 2017

WASHINGTON – The Department of Veterans Affairs is backing off a proposal in President Donald Trump’s 2018 budget to cut billions of dollars from a program that provides compensation to the country’s most disabled veterans.

VA Secretary David Shulkin told the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee on Wednesday that he was willing to work with lawmakers to find an alternative to the proposed $3.2 billion cut to the VA Individual Unemployability benefit. The announcement came after the country’s six largest veterans service organizations condemned the proposal.

“As I began to listen to veterans and their concerns, and [veterans service organizations] in particular, it became clear that this would be hurting some veterans and a takeaway from veterans who can’t afford to have those benefits taken away,” Shulkin said. “I’m really concerned about that. This is part of a process. We have to be looking at ways to do things better, but I am not going to support policies that hurt veterans.”
Letter signed by 57 congressmen to Sec. David Shulkin
read more here

Read this letter and then if your member of Congress is on it, thank them! Stephanie Murphy is on it, so a huge public thank you for fighting for our veterans!

The bad news is "rounding down" is still on the table.

Trump’s budget also proposes to reapply a practice at the VA to round down veterans’ cost-of-living adjustments, which would save approximately $20 million in 2018. That savings would also be used for the new Choice program.

UPDATE
Here are some of the names we have to thank!

O’HALLERAN, GALLEGO LEAD LETTER TO SECRETARY SHULKIN OPPOSING VETERAN PROGRAM CUTSJune 12, 2017 Press ReleaseWashington, DC - Today, Congressmen Tom O’Halleran (AZ-01) and Ruben Gallego (AZ-07) sent a bipartisan letter, signed by 55 additional members of Congress, to Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin opposing the proposed cuts to the Individual Unemployability (IU) program within President Donald Trump’s budget proposal.

Congressman Ruben Gallego is the son of Hispanic immigrants, a veteran, and a community leader. He was the first in his family to attend college, graduating from Harvard University with a degree in International Relations. He later joined the Marine Corps, serving in Iraq with the well-known combat unit Lima 3/25.

Congresswoman Dina Titus Dina grew up in the small town of Tifton, Georgia, with her parents, Joe and Betty Titus, and her younger sister, Dr. Rho Hudson, who is a professor of special education and founding faculty member of Nevada State College. Dina is a graduate of the College of William and Mary, holds a Master's degree from the University of Georgia, and earned her Doctorate at Florida State University. 

Congresswoman Nydia M. Velázquez is currently serving her thirteenth term as Representative for New York’s 7th Congressional District. In the 115th Congress, she is the Ranking Member of the House Small Business Committee and a senior member of the Financial Services Committee. 

Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, now in her fourteenth term as the Congresswoman for the District of Columbia, is the Ranking Member of the House Subcommittee on Highways and Transit. She serves on two committees: the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.

Congresswoman Jacky Rosen represents Nevada’s third District and was sworn into the 115th Congress after winning in the 2016 election. Rosen has been an active member of Southern Nevada’s community.
As the first member of her family to graduate from college, Rosen worked two jobs and took out student loans to make ends meet. Over summers, Rosen waitressed in Las Vegas and was a proud member of Culinary Workers Union Local 226. 

Congressman Tom Suozzi, a CPA and attorney, is the Congressman representing the Third Congressional District in New York. He serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, House Armed Services Committee, is Vice-Chair of the Problem Solvers Caucus and Co-Chair of the Quiet Skies Caucus. 

Congressman John Lewis Despite more than 40 arrests, physical attacks and serious injuries, John Lewis remained a devoted advocate of the philosophy of nonviolence. After leaving SNCC in 1966, he continued his commitment to the Civil Rights Movement as Associate Director of the Field Foundation and his participation in the Southern Regional Council's voter registration programs. Lewis went on to become the Director of the Voter Education Project (VEP). Under his leadership, the VEP transformed the nation's political climate by adding nearly four million minorities to the voter rolls.  

Shame on us for creating a subclass of disabled veterans!

Stop Tolerating Veterans Being Pushed Back Into Subclass
Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
June 14, 2017

Remember Memorial Day weekend? There was a lot going on especially for the majority of our veterans. There were lots of ceremonies around the country showing how much the American people care at the same time in Washington, news was getting through the crowds gathered that senior veterans were once again being subjected to subclass veteran status.

The budget submitted by POTUS called for senior veterans to take a huge cut in their disability checks. Why? Because they are collecting Social Security? 

Ok, then no one bothered to explain to these veterans why "permanent and total" meant nothing. After all, since most disabled veterans were receiving the equivalent of 100% with the "unemployable" part, they did not bother to clog up the system to get their service connected rating upgraded. 

After all, they knew about the backlog of claims the younger veterans were facing, much the same way they did when no one cared about them, so they let it go.

Most of these senior veterans were unable to work for a decade, or in many cases, decades, meaning they were not able to pay into Social Security. Ever wonder what that does to the amount of money they pay?

This is a chart from Social Security

This is the Compensation rate from the Department of Veterans Affairs

Most stopped working well before the age of 62 because they couldn't, not because they didn't want to.

Retirement is a dangerous time for them instead of their golden years.

Vietnam Veterans Experience PTSD in Retirement for the First Time 
WGCU NPR News 
By MICHAEL HIRSH
MAY 30, 2017 
"Vets have more time to think. They may have been using work as a way to cope. They were self-medicating by turning into workaholics. Now, that coping mechanism is no longer available, and any number of events can trigger symptoms. Even something as simple as going to an Asian restaurant, even though the vet may have eaten at the restaurant throughout their working life."

It is also clear when you ignore all the "awareness raisers" running around the country talking about veterans committing suicide. Aside from getting the numbers wrong, they totally ignore the fact that 65% of the suicides they know about were veterans over the age of 50!

"Approximately 65 percent of all Veterans who died from suicide in 2014 were 50 years of age or older."

Now you can no longer ignore any of this when you hear about what this plan to cut their compensation is doing to them! We have created a subclass of veterans. 

While they do not want to see anything taken away from younger veterans, imagine what it is like for them to fact this, on top of everything else! 

Caregiver stipend is not for them. It is only for younger veterans even though their "caregivers" managed to do it all with absolutely no help or recognition at all. 

The charities popping up all over the country and handing disabled veterans free homes, are not doing it for them, nor have they ever done it, yet now these veterans are worried about losing the homes they struggled to get and keep.

They have waited longer, fought harder for all generations to make sure no generation ever left another one behind, but that is exactly what we just did to them. If you think a coin, a lunch saying "Welcome Home" will make up for any of this, you are pretty much out of your mind.

How about you actually do something for them? One more thing to consider is that these veterans have lived for decades after facing combat, yet after these decades, the war they had to fight alone at home all this time is still trying to destroy them!

PULSE NIGHTCLUB RESPONDER CONFRONTS A NEW CRISIS: PTSD

A PULSE NIGHTCLUB RESPONDER CONFRONTS A NEW CRISIS: PTSD
WMFE
by Abe Aboraya (NPR)
7 hours ago

Gerry Realin says he wishes he had never become a police officer.

Self portrait of Gerry Realin. Time on the paddleboard is one way Realin deals with his post-traumatic stress disorder diagnosis. Gerry Realin (left) and his wife Jessica are working to get first responders workers' compensation benefits in Florida. Image credit: Abe Aboraya

Realin, 37, was part of the hazmat team that responded to the Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando on June 12, 2016. He spent four hours taking care of the dead inside the club. Now, triggers like a Sharpie marker or a white sheet yank him out of the moment and back to the nightclub, where they used Sharpies to list the victims that night and white sheets to cover them.

He says small things make him disproportionately upset. He gets lost in memories of the shooting, he says — his young son will call him over and over again. Then, he gets angry that he let himself get trapped in thought, and that spirals into depression.

“Then there’s the moments you can’t control,” Realin says. “The images or flashbacks or nightmares you don’t even know about, and your wife tells you the next day you were screaming or twitching all night.”

Realin was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and hasn’t worked since just after the shooting. He worries about his family, he says, “hiding from your kids so that they’re not traumatized by your rage or depression,” which “gives them a sense of insecurity, which isn’t good.”

At least one other police officer has publicly discussed being diagnosed with PTSD after the Pulse shooting, and it’s possible there are more who suffer from it. Orlando City Commissioner Patty Sheehan says there are people who go to war and don’t see what officers saw inside Pulse.
read more here

Iraq Veteran Third Suicide in Palm Coast Within 5 Days

A 26-Year-Old Iraq War Veteran In 3rd Suicide in 5 Days in Palm Coast
FLAGLERLIVE
JUNE 13, 2017

Justus Albert Leach, A 26-year-old Army veteran of the Iraq war, was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in his backyard at 71 Ft. Caroline Lane Sunday. It was the third suicide by gunshot in five days in Palm Coast.

Justus Leach in one of the images he frequently reposted on his Facebook page.

A roommate of Leach’s found him Sunday morning in a corner of the backyard, on a bench. “A tactical shotgun was also observed” near Leach, according to a Flagler County Sheriff’s Office report. The gun had been moved by another roommate after he had been advised by a 911 dispatcher to attempt CPR.

But a deputy reported that by then Leach appeared to have been dead “for some time,” according to the report. Leach was pronounced dead by a paramedic at 8:57 a.m. Sunday (June 11). It isn’t clear how long he had lived on Ft. Caroline, where four other residents also live.

Neighbors did not report hearing any gunshots, according to the deputy.

On June 8, a 92-year-old Palm Coast resident took his life after driving to the old Players Club tennis court, and leaving a note and instructions behind for his family. He had been depressed and battling cancer. Two days earlier, a 49-year-old resident of Plantation Bay took his own life at his home. Both men died of gunshot wounds.
read more here

Combat Medic Vietnam Veteran Finally Receiving Medal of Honor

Vietnam veteran to receive Medal of Honor five decades later, after an act of Congress
Army Times
By: Meghann Myers
June 13, 2017

He will receive the award on July 31, according to a White House press release.

This 1969 photo provided by James McCloughan shows him with the former Army medic, right, with a platoon interpreter in Nui Yon Hill in Vietnam. An Army spokeswoman said Tuesday, June 13, 2017, that McCloughan, who saved the lives of 10 soldiers during the Battle of Nui Yon Hill in May 1969 in Vietnam, will become the first person to be awarded the nation's highest military honor by President Donald Trump.Photo Credit: Courtesy of James McCloughan via AP

Late last year, former Spc. Jim McCloughan was close enough to taste it. After then-President Obama signed a provision included in the annual defense authorization bill, McCloughan was cleared to receive the Medal of Honor.

But the White House was in the midst of a transition to the Trump administration, and so McCloughan's award fell by the wayside for several months, until it could be signed by the acting Army secretary and the new president.

McCloughan, 71, had been waiting for the call for six months, but the event was a decade in the making, since family started reaching out to his local Michigan lawmakers about putting McCloughan in for the Distinguished Service Cross, to recognize him for his bravery as a combat medic in Vietnam back in 1969.
read more here

VoteVets Blocked by POTUS?

Since Inauguration Day, no organization has more forcefully or effectively taken on President Trump. Whether it's the ads on his favorite morning shows or the voices of veterans we've helped to resist his dangerous agenda... this morning, the President of the United States had enough of VoteVets, and he acted on the impulse.

This morning, President Trump, the Commander in Chief, blocked VoteVets on Twitter.

Here's the truth, Trump can block VoteVets on Twitter, the voice of 500,000 progressive veterans, military family members, and their civilian supporters, but we will NOT be silenced. Stand with us today:

Make a $3 donation to VoteVets today as a way of saying that you will not let President Trump silence progressive veterans and military family members who are fighting to resist his dangerous agenda.

Like General Wesley Clark says, there is no organization more decisive in a fight than VoteVets. We are one of the few out there who have actually scored political victories against this administration. But we can't do it alone. That's why your $3 donation towards our work elevating the voices of veterans against Trump is so important.

Thank you for your continued support.

All my best,

Jon Soltz
Iraq War Veteran & Chairman
VoteVets

Texas Police Officers Caught Cooling Off WWII Veteran

Texas police's cool surprise for 95-year-old WW2 veteran
BBC
June 13, 2017

Mr Hatley explained to the officers that he had been trying to keep cool on his outdoor porch.

That's when Officers Margolis and Weir decided to use their own money to buy a replacement window unit. Employees at the hardware store were so impressed when they heard the reason for their shopping trip that they contributed another $150 (£120).

A 95-year-old Texas man received some unexpected help from police officers after calling emergency services during a heat wave.

Julius Hatley called Forth Worth police on Thursday after both his window and central air conditioning units broke and his home became unbearably hot.

"This wasn't a regular 911 call," Fort Worth Officer William Margolis told CBS 11, noting "we're not AC techs".

Together with his partner, Christopher Weir, they chose to buy him a new unit.

"When we got there around 8:30am his house was 85 to 90 (29-35C) degrees already," Fort Worth Officer William Margolis said. "In Texas, it gets hot," the five-year police veteran added.
read more here

Pulse Responders Needing Help But Still Not Finding It

A Pulse Nightclub Responder Confronts A New Crisis: PTSD
NPR
Abe Aborya
June 12, 2017

Sheehan has heard from first responders and mental health workers that there are more officers, possibly with PTSD, who don't want to come forward because they don't want to be seen as weak or unfit for duty. She says she wishes they would, though.

Gerry Realin says he wishes he had never become a police officer.

Realin, 37, was part of the hazmat team that responded to the Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando on June 12, 2016. He spent four hours taking care of the dead inside the club. Now, triggers like a Sharpie marker or a white sheet yank him out of the moment and back to the nightclub, where they used Sharpies to list the victims that night and white sheets to cover them.

He says small things make him disproportionately upset. He gets lost in memories of the shooting, he says — his young son will call him over and over again. Then, he gets angry that he let himself get trapped in thought, and that spirals into depression.

"Then there's the moments you can't control," Realin says. "The images or flashbacks or nightmares you don't even know about, and your wife tells you the next day you were screaming or twitching all night."

Realin was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and hasn't worked since just after the shooting. He worries about his family, he says, "hiding from your kids so that they're not traumatized by your rage or depression," which "gives them a sense of insecurity, which isn't good."

"I've talked to some of the officers and they're pretty traumatized by what they saw," Sheehan says. "It was horrible, the sights and the smells, and the thing that really haunts them is the cell phones that were in [the victims'] pockets ringing."
read more here

Speeches Won't Replace Dignity of Our Disabled Veterans

How many Florida Veterans will end up meaning less to POTUS?
Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
June 12, 2017

When you look at the number of veterans that are under attack right now, it should put everyone on alert. After all, we're talking about veterans, disabled because they served this country. That should mean something but apparently, the words "grateful" "honor" and "commitment" mean absolutely nothing the the man who kept telling veterans he would take care of them. Florida Vote Results has the numbers from each county. 

Great thing about statistics is that there are always a lot of them we can look at, like the counties right here in Florida that are headed to the hardest hit on our veterans.


Compensation and Pension by County
These reports provide county-level estimates of the number of Veterans who received VA Disability Compensation or Pension benefits during the reported Fiscal Year.  It includes the Veterans’ total disability rating, age group, and gender.

State	County	Total: Compensation	0% to 20%	30% to 40%	50% to 60%	70% to 90%	100%
		ONLY
Florida	Alachua	3,554	1,215	758	571	672	338
Florida	Baker	417	161	85	63	82	27
Florida	Bay	6,941	2,342	1,447	1,131	1,434	587
Florida	Bradford	487	161	116	77	85	48
Florida	Brevard	17,230	5,298	3,023	2,600	4,127	2,181
Florida	Broward	14,731	4,684	2,690	2,280	3,530	1,547
Florida	Calhoun	331	105	59	51	70	48
Florida	Charlotte	3,569	1,166	586	489	827	500
Florida	Citrus	3,674	1,190	714	521	802	446
Florida	Clay	8,944	2,910	1,904	1,581	1,929	621
Florida	Collier	3,039	1,090	533	450	631	335
Florida	Columbia	1,717	535	344	272	351	215
Florida	Desoto	326	90	55	59	82	41
Florida	Dixie	311	88	55	52	76	39
Florida	Duval	21,482	7,503	4,624	3,680	4,193	1,481
Florida	Escambia	11,670	4,028	2,374	1,840	2,430	998
Florida	Flagler	2,226	647	405	352	546	277
Florida	Franklin	281	85	61	47	51	37
Florida	Gadsden	715	250	153	108	123	81
Florida	Gilchrist	523	167	106	77	110	64
Florida	Glades	238	95	25	28	58	33
Florida	Gulf	283	96	55	44	59	29
Florida	Hamilton	238	87	48	38	34	31
Florida	Hardee	190	69	31	23	43	24
Florida	Hendry	300	126	45	29	68	32
Florida	Hernando	5,082	1,710	848	693	1,174	658
Florida	Highlands	1,492	487	285	194	331	195
Florida	Hillsborough	26,621	7,942	5,159	4,236	6,322	2,961
Florida	Holmes	477	157	82	67	121	50
Florida	Indian River	2,639	846	456	392	599	345
Florida	Jackson	983	270	214	165	219	116
Florida	Jefferson	255	93	50	41	44	27
Florida	Lafayette	71	25	12	15	12	**
Florida	Lake	5,676	1,822	1,028	846	1,278	702
Florida	Lee	9,108	3,078	1,673	1,301	2,014	1,042
Florida	Leon	3,285	1,237	682	525	535	305
Florida	Levy	789	256	151	123	172	87
Florida	Liberty	89	40	15	12	15	**
Florida	Madison	271	88	49	56	54	24
Florida	Manatee	5,358	1,804	904	781	1,167	703
Florida	Marion	6,950	2,270	1,385	973	1,408	913
Florida	Martin	2,468	853	419	339	542	315
Florida	Miami-Dade	12,839	3,708	2,125	2,007	3,396	1,603
Florida	Monroe	1,658	540	292	262	396	168
Florida	Nassau	1,758	575	388	285	357	153
Florida	Okaloosa	12,972	4,444	2,876	2,099	2,637	916
Florida	Okeechobee	232	63	41	39	63	27
Florida	Orange	16,911	5,220	3,152	2,701	3,946	1,891
Florida	Osceola	5,122	1,341	838	778	1,392	773
Florida	Palm Beach	12,803	4,421	2,213	1,849	2,862	1,458
Florida	Pasco	10,725	3,256	1,919	1,618	2,537	1,395
Florida	Pinellas	17,682	5,631	2,961	2,518	4,136	2,436
Florida	Polk	9,996	3,210	1,810	1,497	2,260	1,218
Florida	Putnam	1,814	580	377	293	397	167
Florida	Saint Johns	3,807	1,296	761	626	786	339
Florida	Saint Lucie	5,071	1,594	818	713	1,259	687
Florida	Santa Rosa	8,882	2,794	1,855	1,517	1,965	752
Florida	Sarasota	6,043	2,261	993	751	1,292	745
Florida	Seminole	6,986	2,355	1,314	1,121	1,464	733
Florida	Sumter	3,693	1,306	744	536	683	424
Florida	Suwannee	899	277	176	148	178	120
Florida	Taylor	347	120	66	54	72	36
Florida	Union	267	99	52	46	49	22
Florida	Volusia	10,929	3,341	1,912	1,614	2,574	1,488
Florida	Wakulla	559	185	127	83	117	46
Florida	Walton	2,064	707	402	306	456	193
Florida	Washington	798	238	181	124	175	80
Florida	Unknown	1,211	319	232	215	317	128

Is this what he meant by he'll take care of our veterans?

Donald J. Trump

"They will be a part of America first. It will be America first from now on. America first."

(Unless they got too old to work and then they'll have to just get a reduction in the compensation they were promised would be permanent and total?)

Oh, but here is more from this same speech.

Donald J. Trump

The evidence shows that of veterans in the system receiving care, they are much less likely to take their own lives than veterans outside of this horrible, horrible and very unfair system.

Donald J. Trump

(APPLAUSE) Never again will we allow a veteran to suffer or die waiting for care they so richly deserve -- these are our great people. We need to clean out the corruption in government.